Australia, Our Black Lives Matter Movement is Long Overdue
★ by Eve Watt ★
image by Tenny Rudolph
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are warned that the following text contains the names of deceased persons.
May 27 to June 3 marked Reconciliation Week in Australia, during which the heads of many non-Indigenous Australians turned to watch the protests against police brutality unfold in America, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. One cannot overstate the importance of allyship, especially for those of us in Australia watching on with a sense of detachment, taking action through online activism, signing petitions and donating. However, there is dramatic irony at play, which becomes especially clear when you’re watching it unfold from the bleachers of your Instagram feed.
Whether it be actual activism, awareness through aesthetics, traumatic videos, the “Black Lives Matter Chain” (tag 10 friends who won’t break it!), or the (now infamous) black square, almost everyone who is active on Instagram (and isn’t racist) has posted something regarding the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement. Apart from the occasional post calling on fellow Australians to recognise the First Nations deaths that continue to occur at the hands of police and the carceral system in Australia, the narrative pushed by the Australian government is largely furthered by much of the Australian public. As stated by Indigenous Australian rapper Briggs, in a powerful post to his Instagram: “Australia parades this idea of ‘The Lucky Country;’ but their Luck is our dispossession. Their Luck is our Death. Their Luck is our Trauma. Their Luck is our Grief.” In a time when the United States faces an undeniable public outcry in the name of recognizing systematic and institutionalised racism, Austrialians must follow suit. Colorism is universal, and we are not immune.
Since the formation of the Royal Commission Into Aboriginal Deaths In Custody (RCIADIC), 437 Indigenous deaths have occurred in police or prison custody, 153 of which occurred from 2008 to 2019, and five of which were between August 2019 and June 2020. This is the fatal consequence of the Australian government’s inaction and lack of implementation of the RCIADIC report’s recommendations, and is also a manifestation of the perpetuation of colonialism within our society. The massive over-representation of First Nations people in the Australian criminal justice system is something the government ostensibly strives to overcome each year — yet every year it gets worse.
Keenan Mundine, cofounder at Deadly Connections (an organisation fighting against over-representation of First Nations People in the justice system), stated, “since these royal commissions, we have built more prisons — we haven’t built more alternatives for our people.” While African American people compose 14 percent of the US general population, they make up 34 percent of the American prison population (The Drum, 2020). In comparison, despite making up only 3 percent of Australia’s population, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners represented 28 percent of the total full-time adult prisoner population during 2019, making them the most incarcerated people on Earth on a per capita basis. Currently, the rate of incarceration for Indigenous people is 15 times that of non-Indigenous men, and 21 times that of non-Indigenous women. While the injustice faced by these two communities should not be compared, a parallel must be drawn, as the oppression faced by both First Nations communities in Australia and the Black community in America is rooted in systemic racism, colonialism, capitalism, genocide and slavery.
“Colorism is universal, and we are not immune.”
While many of us turn to the work of American author, activist, and philosopher Angela Davis for wisdom and empowerment, we fail to recognise that the Prison Industrial Complex is well at work within Australia as well. Both the American and Australian governments view police brutality and mass incarceration as contemporary problems, not allowing for change at a systemic level. Rather, such issues are extensions of colonialism and capitalism. The Australian prison system plays a distinctive role in the control and management of Indigenous peoples, and is a fundamental proponent of the colonial project, in which “Indigenous peoples must be erased, must be made into ghosts” (stated by scholars E. Tuck and K. Yang).
First Nations issues are often shrouded in a deficit discourse. As such, many non-Indigenous Australians read the alarming statistics of drug and alcohol dependency within Indigenous communities, but fail to understand the deeply-embedded intergenerational trauma and perpetuation of colonialism that allows such issues to worsen.
The Northern Territory Intervention, introduced by the Howard government in 2007, oversaw a list of at least 12 discriminatory measures in the NT, which included a ban on alcohol in prescribed Aboriginal communities (somewhat paralleling the War on Drugs in the US). The creation of these new offences, resulting in a greater police presence, saw incarceration rates increase by at least 40 percent. As of 2017, 84 percent of the Northern Territory’s prison population was Indigenous. Prisons are used largely to dispossess Indigenous Peoples from their land, causing further disruption to culture and spirituality.
“While the injustice faced by these two communities can not be compared, a parallel must be drawn. The oppression faced by both First Nations communities in Australia and the Black community in America is rooted in systemic racism, colonialism, capitalism, genocide and slavery.”
Many are quick to rebuke all Australians for their ignorance, such as Australian journalist Alexis Daish’s recent claim that “people in Australia don’t have an understanding of the history of police killings here.” However, First Nations people and non-Indigenous allies have been fighting for institutional change for years, with their voices falling largely on deaf ears. In many ways, the heightened acknowledgement and support for Black Lives Matter in the US has increased public awareness of Australia’s own movement, often termed “Blak Lives Matter,” with the term “Blak” used by some Indigenous Peoples to reclaim sovereignty and self-determination.
Instead, it is Prime Minister Scott Morrison who claimed on 2GB on June 1 that he was ”thankful” to live here, and urged the public not to “import things happening in other countries here to Australia,” turning a blind eye to his own government’s institutionalised and systematic racism. According to National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services Co-Chair Nerita Waight, “the Prime Minister, like others before him, has chosen to ignore this country’s legacy of Aboriginal deaths in custody.”
Throughout Australia, many Aboriginal-led organisations specialise in prison reform and prison abolition, campaigning for lowering the over-incarceration of First Nations people. Change The Record advocates for investment in education, prevention and diversion strategies, to cut imprisonment rates and build safer communities. On June 2, they called for the Australian Prime Minister and National Cabinet to “End Black Deaths In Custody“ - the statement including words from the family of Tanya Day, a Yorta Yorta woman who died in police custody:
“Hundreds of Aboriginal people have died in police custody, yet no police officer has ever been held criminally responsible. This is a stain on this country. Our families and communities are being decimated by the racism that infects police. We know that our mum would have been treated differently and would still be alive today if she was a non-Indigenous person.”
Other organisations include but are in no way limited to Sisters Inside (which advocates for women and girls in prison and began the #Freethepeople campaign to release at least 100 single First Nations mothers from prison), Deadly Connections (mentioned above) and ANTaR (which campaigns against over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the criminal justice system).
On June 2 in Perth, WA, thousands took to the streets to stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and bring the focus onto localised issues of racial injustice. As they held signs reading “we can’t breathe,” they echoed both the cries of George Floyd and David Dungay, a Dunghutti Aboriginal man who said “I can’t breathe” twelve times before he died while being restrained by five police officers in 2015. Protests have subsequently taken place across the nation, with thousands attending a protest organised by the Warriors of Aboriginal Resistance in Melbourne on June 6. Similar rallies occurred in Brisbane, Adelaide, Sydney and other locations.
These protests take place at the same time as an arrest of a 16-year-old Indigenous boy on June 2, who was kicked by a policeman causing him to fall face-first to the ground. Nathan Moran, from the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council, said that the teenager's arrest exemplified over-policing and excessive force. He stated that “29 years ago, we had a royal commission that highlighted that this type of policing should not continue.” The NSW police commissioner defended the officer, arguing that he simply “had a bad day.” This arrest comes at a time when there is an even brighter spotlight on police brutality, a spotlight which has been necessary in Australia for quite some time.
“With fires ablaze in the fight for justice overseas, Australia is called upon to act, not just at a community level, but at a national one.”
On Australian television program The Drum, Wesley Aird, General Manager at the Aboriginal Performing Arts Centre in Queensland, stated that “a lot of what happens in a prison, in a watch house, doesn’t make its way out into social media by video. We sit back and wait, sometimes years, for a coronial inquiry.” He added, “it’s so rare that we get to see … what may or may not be the true story.” Many Indigenous deaths in custody don’t reach the Australian public until long after they take place, if at all. Interviewed on the same program, Keenan Mundine argued that non-Indigenous people “don’t understand how fundamental the inequality is and the problems faced by Indigenous communities. Every Indigenous family is touched by someone … that actually goes in and out of prison.”
With fires ablaze in the fight for justice overseas, Australia is called upon to act, not just at a community level, but at a national one. The failure of our current system to deliver justice to First Nations people cannot be ignored. Evidently, it is the deep roots of colonialism and capitalism which sustain police brutality. As Reconciliation Week comes to a close, we as a people must reevaluate whether the processes and systems already in place truly aim to achieve such justice, or continue to enslave and oppress Black people both in the US and Australia.
Listed below are the names and stories of First Nations people who have died in custody from 2019-2020. Say their names. Remember their stories.
Joyce Clarke (2019), a Yamatji woman, was 29 when she was shot dead by a police officer outside her home in Geraldton, Western Australia, after her family called police for assistance to transfer her to hospital. The police officer who shot her has pleaded not guilty and remains on bail, and will make his first appearance in the Western Australian supreme court on August 17.
Kumanjayi Walker (2019) was 19 when he was shot dead in his family’s house at Yuendumu in the Northern Territory. Constable Zachary Rolfe was charged with murder and is set to appear in court at the end of June. He intends to plead not guilty.
A 20-year-old Aboriginal man (2019, name not released) fell 10 metres to his death while being escorted from Gosford Hospital to Kariong Correctional Centre.
Veronica Walker (2020) died at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in Victoria. Heard calling for help, she was allegedly checked on by staff at 4 AM then left to die overnight.
A 30-year-old Aboriginal man (2020, name not released) from Horsham, Victoria, died in police custody after being arrested for breaching a court order.
The Guardian’s Deaths Inside Database includes the stories of all First Nations people who have died in custody up until 2019.
They are not just numbers.
As Keenan Mundine stated, “When everything settles and everyone goes about their lives, these family members still have to carry it with them.” We must not go on ignoring the fundamental injustice occurring at the hands of Australia’s carceral system.